Reading Time: 3 minutes Jesus makes bold claims for prayer, and Christian parents often teach their children to pray at a very young age. But is it responsible to trust this awesome power to children? (It is, but only because we know that prayer is just a placebo.)
prayer
Posted inReligion
Back When Al Mohler Supported Women Pastors
Reading Time: 9 minutes Yesterday, I showed you the re-eruption of a decades-old slapfight going on in evangelicalism: whether or not evangelicals should allow women to be pastors. This archaic-sounding squabble represents a central issue to the usual gaggle of Christian Right bigots-for-Jesus. And very few of them despise the notion of women pastors quite like Al Mohler. He fights against the idea with all the radicalized passion of a convert — because that is precisely what he is. Today, let me show you a very different Al Mohler: one who fully supported women pastors, and then, I’ll show you the force that brought him up short one fateful day.
Posted inUncategorized
The Wacky World of Christian Callings
Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi and welcome back! Something about yesterday’s topic got me thinking about the Christianese concept of callings. In Christianese, a calling is something Christians think Jesus told them, specifically, to do with their lives. Today, let me show you how strange callings can get — and what happens when Christians must adjust theirs. (Fundagelicals are evangelicals […]
Posted inReligion
Christian Strategies Reveal Their Disbelief in Their Own Claims
Reading Time: 9 minutes For a bit now, we’ve been looking at an evangelical podcast called Gospelbound. In the specific episode we listened to, two Christians outlined their strategies for reversing their religion’s decline. Interestingly, both strategies reveal the speakers’ distinct lack of faith in their own religious claims. Today, let’s marvel at their accidental reveal — and ask what their strategies might look like if they actually believed that anything they said about their god was true.
Posted inEducation, The Secular
Humanists Challenge Tennessee School District over Unconstitutional Graduation Prayers
Reading Time: 2 minutes This is from the AHA: Today, the American Humanist Association (AHA)’s legal director notified Tennessee school officials of looming legal action over constitutional violations occurring at Bledsoe County High School, and most likely within the Bledsoe County School district at large, in Pikeville, Tennessee. The AHA’s demand letter, written on behalf of a concerned AHA […]
Posted inPolitics
Amanda Gorman’s secular poetry was far more inspiring than the Inaugural prayers
Reading Time: < 1 minute We need more poets and fewer priests at events like these.
Posted inUncategorized
Does Prayer Work If God is Not Listening?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Here, we have another offering from Dana Horton looking at atheism and spirituality, again dealing with the subject of prayer: Does Prayer Work If God is Not Listening? (4 minute 30 second read) Last week we outlined how the Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL) taught us to pray in ministerial school. These steps may […]
Posted inThe Secular
Capitol insurrectionists dragged Jesus into secular hall of Congress
Reading Time: 4 minutes So, you think Christianity had little to do with the Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol by Christian white supremacist thugs? Think again.
Posted inUncategorized
How Does Prayer Work? And What Does that Say About God?
Reading Time: 4 minutes “Ask and you will receive” is what’s promised, but prayer doesn’t work that way. Let’s examine the reductionist god that Christians have created.
Posted inSpirituality & Ritual
Is Prayer Just Intention on Spiritual Steroids?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Here is another nonreligious piece with a spiritual bent from Dana Horton: Is Prayer Just Intention on Spiritual Steroids? (5 minute read) In ministerial school (Centers for Spiritual Living, or CSL) we were taught that there were five steps to ‘proper’ praying. This technique was a little different from the Christian tradition of pleading with […]